Here, SIDS and Kids Australia recommends that babies sleep in their own bed. However, one study found that up to 80 per cent of babies share their parents’ bed at some point in their first few months.

Ms Piche-Pitts claims that her daughter died after Ms Piche-Pitts fell asleep while breastfeeding in bed. When she woke up her daughter was ‘cold and stiff to the touch’.

Local chief assistant state attorney Brian Hass told The New York Times: “These are very, very difficult cases. We are not charging parents with crimes because accidents happen. There has got to be something more to it.”

In New Zealand, where co-sleeping is common among Maori families, a coroner recently that Maori parents use a wahakura (a flax-woven bassinet) to safely co-sleep with babies, according to the NZ Herald.

In 2006, a plastic version of the wahakura, a pepi-pod (which costs $100) was created by a NZ GP who was concerned by the number of Maori accidental asphyxiation deaths. The New Zealand government is currently looking at whether to officially recommend the product.